The right tool for the job. That’s quite a remarkable discovery. A tiller verses a spade, a corkscrew verses a screw and hammer... the right tool for the job saves time, money, and headaches. Today, I'm going to explain how our lives have been made simpler by 3 gadgets (yes, I would take these with me on a deserted island).
I promise you I’m not endorsed or getting kickbacks from any of the following products
1.) Instant Pot - purchased a 6-quart Deluxe Instant Pot off Facebook Marketplace for $90. From the photos, the IP looked nearly brand new and the gentleman selling it was upgrading to some sort of Air Frier/Instant Pot combo that I genuinely hope no one here tries to talk me into. The thought of parting with the beloved Instant Pot? Unthinkable.
It was a gift for Adam’s 35th birthday. He was headed to Des Moines to teach a sports massage course and I said, “Happy Birthday. Go to this address and your present will be waiting for you.” I masked in a fun scavenger hunt theme, but thankfully no serial killer. I had no way of knowing.
Adam raves about the Instant Pot being the best gift I’ve ever purchased. Truth be told, one of us uses it EVERY day. It has become such a part of kitchen function that I find myself asking what was life like before…?
Here are the staples we make in it on the regular:
Yogurt - Yes, we make our own yogurt. It’s easy and pretty much FOOL proof doing it in the IP. We buy a gallon of WW Homestead Dairy Whole Milk, retain about a cup of yogurt weekly to act as the starter. You even heat the milk in the IP, so literally everything is done in the pot. Before IP we used a cooler and boiled the milk on the stove… it worked but occasionally we’d botch a batch. This has yet to happen in the IP.
Dried Beans - We grew pintos, kidneys, black beans and cattle beans this year. So cool to eat our own legumes and protein. The best part about the IP is there’s no need to soak the beans before hand. It’s as easy as rinsing beans, putting it in IP, adding water and cooking on high pressure for 35-40 minutes.
Grains - no more watching the stove. It makes perfect rice- it’s like having a rice cooker except this is better because it’s not another single use appliance.
Soups & Chilis - One pot wonder and a glorified slow cooker.
** I even made 1 pot potato salad with potatoes on the bottom and perfectly done deviled eggs on top.
2.) Vitamix - When I served as the Iowa FoodCorps Fellow, all FoodCorps members and fellows were awarded a Vitamix. It was the first and probably the only time in education I’ll come close to receiving a “bonus.” It was very much a spectacular $600 value holiday gift and a testament to Vitamix Corp. for honoring the hard work and efforts of service members across the country. The company also “threw in” afterwards a dry canister for grinding grains. We call it the boat engine because it’s LOUD. Linden knows to cover his ears when we get it out. I am amazed at its power and used to blow fuses in our old place if the Vitamix was on with a number of other appliances. We use the Vitamix extensively in the fall.
Before(!)
Tomatoes - So easy. Cut off tops, bruises, throw into Vitamix until the tomatoes are liquefied. Scoop into freezer bags. This is usually what we do when we’ve finished canning tomatoes, salsa, making enchilada sauce. It’s handy to have frozen tomato juice to toss into soups and chilis. Linden is into drinking pureed tomatoes plain… wait until he discovers Bloody Marys. :)
Pesto - The Vitamix does a stellar job at processing basil for copious amounts of pesto. We freeze all our pesto into 6oz. bags (actually, technically they are breast milk bags - perfect size and freezer safe).
After(!)
Smoothies - You guessed it. The Vitmaix serves as a traditional blender for us. A good friend once told me, always add a banana to every smoothie. And you just can’t make a smoothie without one.
Grains - The dry bin attachment is pretty awesome too. It’s smaller and as you probably could imply, not intended for liquids.
Coffee - Recently the dry bin attachment has been back up to grind our coffee. Our small electric grinder kicked the dust. Planned obsolescence?
3.) French Press - Lastly, coffee. Because who can’t start their day without it? For us, our hoity toity coffee addiction centers around sources ethically produced and flavorful beans rather than on the home brew production. So for use the trusted $25 French Press does the trick Monday-Sunday. For those of you who’ve never Frenched (hehe, I couldn’t help myself), the coffee is just much more rich.
Here’s our routine: Grind beans. Scoop 6 tablespoons. Boil water. Let about 1 cup of water sit with grounds for about 3 minutes. Pour the rest of the water into French Press and let it sit for another 3 minutes, at minimum. I allllways appreciate the AirBnB that has a French Press…usually the first thought, “Oh, these are my people.”
Of course, I like a little coffee with my cream.